Mr Giscard's comments were echoed on the Radio 4 World at One programme by Polish Europe Minister Jaroslaw Pietras, who said he was disappointed at the lack of progress towards resolving a dispute over the EU budget.

Strategic view

UK Europe Minister Douglas Alexander said London was working hard to make progress on both questions - the future of Europe and the framework budget for 2007-13.

Douglas Alexander: October meeting will look at 'big challenges'

"On the future of Europe, the prime minister was very clear that the right response was not to have further institutional discussions at this stage, but actually to have a broader debate about the future of Europe," he said.

He said much was being done to prepare for a meeting of EU leaders in London next month where "a more strategic view" would be taken of the bigger challenges facing Europe.

On the EU budget, he said the UK had held bilateral meetings with all the other 24 member states, which would help British officials judge whether a deal could be done this year.

If it could, he said, the "right place" for this would be a summit in Brussels in December.

Mr Giscard d'Estaing's comments came a day after the President of the European Commission, Jose Manuel Barroso, called on the EU not to get bogged down on the issue of institutional reform because there would be no constitution for "at least two or three years".

The former French president told the BBC he thought France would re-open the constitution debate after its 2007 election and that the document would ultimately be approved.